In a typical aircraft mounted gas turbine engine, ball-and-socket joints, or simply ball joints, are used for joining together fluid carrying conduits which require articulation therebetween. An integral bellows seal is provided inside the ball joints for preventing leakage of the fluid flow therethrough while allowing articulation of the ball joint itself.
Since the ball and socket are spherical for allowing articulation therebetween while holding together the two components thereof, they cannot be simply assembled together in their final form. Similarly, the large diameter convolutions of the bellows are typically located inside the spherical ball and socket, and therefore the bellows also cannot be simply assembled into the ball joint in its final form.
Accordingly, in order to assemble these three components of a typical ball joint, one conventional method requires that the outer spherical socket be initially formed as two halves or split so that the bellows and the ball may be initially assembled into the socket first half, with the socket second half being positioned over the ball and welded to the socket second half to complete the assembly. This assembly process is relatively complex, and the welding together of the two socket halves may cause undesirable distortion thereof, undesirable residual stresses therein, and an undesirable weld located in a highly stressed location of the unit.
In another conventional ball joint, the spherical socket is formed with axially extending locking tabs which are initially axially translated over complementary indentations in the outer surface of the ball which allows the ball and socket to be assembled together around a bellows therein. The ball and socket are then rotated relative to each other so that the socket tabs are positioned remotely from the ball indentations which prevents the unintended disassembly of the ball joint. This design also is relatively complex and requires the additional formation of the locking tabs and assembly indentations.